The Word Identification Test Battery: A New Approach to Mastery and the Assessment of Word Identification Skills. Report from the Project on Studies in Language: Reading and Communication.

Johnson, Dale D.; And Others

The work reported culminates research by the Project on the Assessment and Analysis of Word Identification Skills in Reading. The Word Identification Test battery was designed for elementary school children, with attention to the major issues pertaining to skills mastery and assessment that are raised in the review of mastery learning. Five important areas were of concern in the development of the battery: (a) basis on which target skills would be selected for inclusion; (b) facilitation of error analysis by creating categorical distractors; (c) ease and efficiency of test administration; (d) independence of the test battery from published materals to lessen the likelihood of teachers teaching to the tests; and (e) establishment of flexible standards for skills mastery based on a global measure of comprehension, rather than on arbitrary cutoff scores. The battery is comprised of five subtests within two major skill areas, phonics and structural analysis. The battery is a valid reliable instrument, and is easy to administer. It can facilitate diagnostic decisions about apportionment of instructional time on the most frequently occurring phonics and structural elements. Performance standards are provided for each subtest. (Author/GK)